St Helen comes back into limited service after incident on board

Wightlink will today bring St Helen back into limited service. The company has been co-operating with the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and Maritime Coastguard Agency investigations since the incident involving St Helen on the evening of Friday 18 July. Wightlink is also conducting its own investigation.

Following consultation and with full approval of the authorities, from today St Helen will be used to support the revised timetable which Wightlink is running on its Portsmouth to Fishbourne route. The mezzanine decks will not be used.

Chief Operating Officer John Burrows explains: “The safety of our customers is always our priority at Wightlink. Bringing the St Helen back into limited service, with her mezzanine decks safely secured out of use, will help us to get as many people to and from the Isle of Wight as possible. All of our ships undergo regular, planned maintenance and, even though St Helen’s mezzanine deck is of a different design to our other vessels, we have taken the precaution of having all our mezzanine decks independently inspected and we will continue to check them daily”.